These days people are soo busy! So time-poor that they just don’t have time to do a lot of research when it comes to buying something. They are looking for short-cuts and ways to easily find what they want. And many business owners are making it hard for the buyers to do business with them without even realising it. Smart marketing makes people curious. It triggers their thoughts and helps them move forward to purchasing!

So here are some tips to helping your prospects become curious;

Give – that’s right. Give in business and you shall receive. This is an oldie but a goody because it works! You give away free info, they give you an email address. You like their Facebook page, they will like your page. You invite someone to something they will invite you to something. You help them, they help you. You look after them, they will refer you. People generally feel obligated to give, once they have received something.

Plug into your prospect to make them curious - How can you make someone curious to know more about what you do? The first thing is to stop downloading (like above) but the 2nd thing is to get inside their head. What things does your buyer need to “check off” in order to do business with you? what are their concerns, worries and needs? Why wouldn’t they do business with you. Pretend yo are a prospect to your own business. Would you do business with you?

Reviews – Get other people to tell your market how good you are. Genuine and detailed reviews are gold. Get them on Facebook and Google and have a display book handy with your work in it together with a the client review for your face-to-face meetings. Gold decision making material right there!

Repetition and Consistency – Stick to your brand, have a theme and stay true to how you work. The better that you are at this means the more people will find you when they are ready to buy. Business finds you when you nail this one!

Compliments – No cheese here. Just genuine compliments! People are often quick to sledge, have an opinion and critique which gets you nowhere! Be nice, share, refer others without thinking about it. Be kind first. Share your market with others and offer help (not advice) People like being around nice people. This makes people more curious about you.

I work through the Buyer Journey with my clients and this starts with your prospect’s being “Ignorant and unaware” of your business. So in order for you to make a sale, you must learn how to make them “Curious” otherwise they just see your marketing and move on with their lives…

If you would like to know more about the Buyer Journey and other Sales and Marketing assistance to small business owners please go to www.businessschoolonline.com.au

The concept of Risk Reversal is simple – but it requires some boldness and guts.

Basically, it means that YOU, the businessperson looking to close a sale, should identify the various reasons a potential customer would hesitate to buy.

You then think of little things you can do to overcome those reasons. The Risk Reversal is like a Guarantee – but way more powerful.

The Standard Guarantee – A standard guarantee offers buyers a 30 day period to return the product for a full refund. This type of guarantee is required by law in many countries such as the USA.

The Extended Time Period Guarantee – A Level 2 guarantee will extend this 30 days period to 90 or more days. Many sellers swear by the 90 day guarantee. By giving the customer a full 90 days to try your product you often lower the refund rate. How long is your guarantee?

Then we step into the Zone of Risk Reversal.

A few years ago, a guy by the name of Nick got frustrated because he could never find the right kinds of shoes he liked in the local mall. Nick went home that day and got online hoping to browse through online shoe stores – but there were few of them set up at that time in 1999. Nick wondered if he could establish his own online shoe store. The idea kept jumping around in his head and eventually he quit his day job and founded Zappos.com.

At first people told him he was crazy. Shoes are something you need to hold in your hand before buying. You need to try them on. Feel the leather. Have your spouse see them on you and let you know what they think. There were a multitude of reasons to NOT buy shoes online.Yet Zappos thrived. In 2005, the 6 year old company did $370 million in shoe sales! How?

Well let me tell you what gets most people hooked on Zappos. Sure, Zappos had a wider variety than a traditional shoe store. But it was Zappos Risk Reversal policy that really makes most prospects into loyal customers. Here’s the decision making process prospects go through before buying their first pay of Kenneth Coles on Zappos.

What if I don’t like that shade of brown? Can I return it? Zappos’ answer was yes.

If I try it on and find it won’t fit – can I return it and get another pair? Their answer: yes.

Will you pay for the shipping – and the cost of return shipping? Their answer was again: yes!

If I buy it and then randomly change my mind – can I still send it back and get my dough back. Again – the answer was yes.

If I bought it and then found one for a cheaper price on Canal Street, can I send it back? Again - yes.

They had an answer for every SINGLE doubt their prospects had. They knew their prices were good and they knew that once they got them hooked, they would be willing to tell their friends about them. They were willing to bend over backwards to give their prospects the best service possible and eliminate every single doubt from their mind. No physical shoe store I know would place that much trust in a customer.

Zappos had effectively reversed every single doubt prospects could have in their mind. They made it a no-brainer to be their customer.

There’s a lot of Marketers out there, telling you that you should be making videos of yourself and putting them on Social Media. But seriously who’s watching them and what makes you think people want to know more about you?

How annoying would Facebook be if everybody jumped onto the “Selfie-Video Bandwagon”? Imagine scrolling through post after post of peoples (often close-up) faces, shamelessly promoting themselves? Personally I think it can be quite damaging to your brand. After all, they say you make your first impression in just a few seconds right?

We can blame the “I” generation for this barrage of shameless self-promotion! (And anyone who has a teenager will know exactly what I am talking about!) The “I” generation thrives on social media with constant selfies and updates about their lives. It’s all about them! And this goes way-way beyond any news and special events. It’s those “everyday” posts about when they checked into the gym, the outfit they wore that day, the pic of them and their dog waking up or they are just feeling like having a rant about the bad day they are having, so everyone cops a serve on Facebook. The list goes on and every little detail about their lives is out there for everyone to comment on. (And absolute fodder for Facebook trolls!)

These days the ”I” generation seems to now include what I call, “Facebook-Preneurs!” Some people in business who think their business is just so fantastic and MUST share every last detail with the general population on Facebook. What they are doing, why they started, how long it took, how amazing it is to work from home, why they are the go-to person and why they are going places etc. All done as a selfie-video to promote themselves on Facebook!

When I see these videos, I often think to myself, that I don’t even know you, so why would I want to listen to your life story or join your team, listen to your one hour podcast, book your seminar or buy your E-Book? And more importantly I think that you don’t know a single thing about me, so why are you just blanket-marketing yourself out there to anyone who hasn’t already pressed stop on Facebook auto play?

Think about this…

Have you every been to an event where you met someone and found them quite painful as all they did was talk about themselves?

If you just met someone in person would you download your life story on them?

Yet people think this is a good idea to promote their business on Facebook??

Here’s the thing; Yes you should absolutely have video promotion as part of your marketing campaign, but there are a few thing to remember here….

1. You need to INTERRUPT your market – but not with your face! Remember that making sales in your business is about having something, UNIQUE, RELEVANT or IMPORTANT to your target market. No offence but your face probably isn’t it! (maybe some exemptions here for the Makeup and hair tutorials!)

2. Your consumer cares about themselves more than they care about you!

3. Stop talking about yourself. Focus on how your customers may be feeling prior to buying your product/service and address their needs and wants.

4. Demonstrate how you solve the problems they may be having, without talking about yourself.

5. Don’t use the word “I” as that is still talking about yourself!

6. If you haven’t got the hint yet…. Stop talking about yourself. The general population doesn’t care about you or your business, they only care about what’s in it for them!

Being able to promote your business without talking about yourself is a learned skill!

Something else to think about…..

You are 6 times more likely to get business from someone who has actually met you in person! So while you definitely need to have a great online presence, I can tell you from experience that building meaningful, trust-based relationships through business networking in person is a far more powerful way to become the local expert rather than being another pop-up face on Facebook!

It’s super competitive and you are going to have to learn to manipulate people. So are you too nice to be in business?

Being a Sales Coach, people often tell me I, “Have the gift of the gab” etc but the fact is that my skills are 100% learnt! Sales skills are learned skills. Skills that you MUST learn in order to survive in business. Just so we are clear, no one is born a Salesperson.

But it’s hard to learn how to be great at Sales, because Sales is a Manipulation. Now if I had a dollar for every business owner who has told me they aren’t a Salesperson I would be really rich…..but my response is always the same. FACT: If you are in business, you are in Sales!

Sales is a manipulation because you are trying to get someone to buy what you are selling. And because the word manipulation has negative connotations, this stops many business owners in their tracks! Sales is about CONVERTING a prospect into a PAYING customer. And nice people struggle with this, because it will take you WAY out of your comfort zone and force you to say things that don’t come naturally to you. This affects your confidence and let’s the self doubt creep in! And your sales get lost!

Now I see many (nice) business owners start up with a (nice) website, a (nice) Facebook page, (nice) business cards and then become a serial business networking attendee talking to other (nice) business owners but all of that is simply wasted if you cannot close a sale.

Why do you think so many startup business owners end up back in a job within a year? They might be great at what they do but not-so-great at business and sales, which actually is the most crucial knowledge that will keep you in business. Many often eventually fall back into part-time work to make ends meet, which (in my opinion) is the beginning of the end of your business. And that fact still stands that 8/10 small businesses fail within 2 years in Australia.

So if the odds are stacked against you when you startup in business, what are YOU going to do so that YOU do not become the next statistic?

The tip here is commit to LEARN. There’s that old saying, “The More You Learn The More You Earn” and you still hear it from time to time, because its true!

You need to make time each week to LEARN about Business & LEARN how to make Sales. Especially if you aren’t making many right now!

What I say to my clients is; “The Money you want is actually outside your comfort zone. Stay where you are and you will get exactly what you have right now. If that is not enough and you want more you have to learn more, commit more and plan your success with an accountability partner or coach!”

So think about whether you are too nice to be in business? How much business do you cost yourself because you don’t ASK for the business and don’t CLOSE the people that you are talking to….

And just to be clear, this doesn’t mean you have to turn yourself into a “Business-card-collecting-bitch” at the next business networking event you attend. It just means you have to have a PURPOSE around your business promotion. And that purpose, should be learning how to close a sale, so that you can STAY in Business and have the success you have always dreamed of!